Rusty Wallace races into NASCAR Hall of Fame

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Rusty Wallace will headline the fourth class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and his famed car "Midnight" will be part of his induction.

Wallace, winner of 55 races and the 1989 Cup championship will be inducted tonight along with champions Buck Baker and Herb Thomas; championship car owner Cotton Owens; and innovative crew chief, mechanic and engine builder Leonard Wood.

Part of Wallace's display in the Hall of Fame will be the car he dubbed Midnight and drove to 13 victories from 1992-94. Wallace led for more than 5,000 laps in the car, which was raced as both a Pontiac Grand Prix and a Ford Thunderbird out of Penske Racing South.

"Back then, it was Dale Earnhardt and I racing for the win all the time," Wallace said. "I remember every week when we got to the track, he'd come up and ask me, 'What car you got? It's not that darn Midnight is it?' If it was, he knew he had his work cut out for him."

Wallace drove Midnight in 38 races, notching 30 top-fives with the car. He led nearly one-third of all possible laps in the events he raced with the car, and Midnight's 13 wins comprise nearly 20 percent of Penske Racing's total.

IndyCar test

AJ Allmendinger will test an IndyCar for Penske Racing later this month to see if he can run the Indianapolis 500 for the storied organization.

Allmendinger lost his job with Penske in August when his suspension for failing a random drug test was upheld. He completed in the "Road to Recovery" program and was reinstated in September.

Penske President Tim Cindric said the team is committed to running a third car at Indy and Allmendinger is an option.

Briefs

IndyCar: Andretti Autosport signed E.J. Viso to drive a fourth car this season. Viso will drive the No. 5 Team Venezuela PDVSA Chevrolet as a teammate to defending IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe and Marco Andretti.

Formula One: Ferrari's Felipe Massa clocked the fastest time of the opening preseason test in the Italian team's new F138 car in Jerez, Spain. Massa recorded a fastest lap of 1 minute, 17.879 seconds. Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel were next.

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